Grants talk:IdeaLab/Wikimedia Among Scouts

Comments

Hi Shriheeran. Just wanted to provide some feedback on your proposal so far:

• The idea of working with the World Organization of Scouts Movement (WOSM) is a really interesting idea. I wanted to suggest that you start a project on a smaller scale-- as you are a scout, you can start by working with your local group and doing an event on a small scale. The notion of reaching 10,000 scouts is an ambitious goal, and one that requires a lot of support. I can help you find individuals who may be able to help, but I think it's a good idea to consider working with a group local to where you are in Sri Lanka or a group you have a close connection with.
• You've noted that you'd like to organize events and workshops to teach scouts about Wikipedia. Can you describe what you'd like to teach at these sessions? Do you want scouts to learn how to use Wikipedia? How to edit? What kind of content can scouts help edit on Wikipedia projects?
• In order for this proposal to move forward, there needs to be more specific information under the Goals section about what outcomes you are hoping to reach as a result of this project. "Involvement" is a little too broad, and can mean a lot of different things. What will scouts gain as a result of this work? How will Wikipedia projects benefits?

I'm happy to help with any of these questions, so feel free to contact me if you need any help. Thanks, I JethroBT (WMF) (talk) 21:25, 3 February 2017 (UTC)

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I JethroBT (WMF), the answers for your questions:

• I think first I have to get the approval of WOSM to conduct this program. I have requested the permission and they they said that they hoped to reply as soon as possible. And I can do this globally but I want some individuals to design a website on this program. And I think WOSM will provide some of its officers to help me. I can do this in SriLanka also but I have to get the permission of WOSM.
• I am going to teach them how to use the Wikipedia, how to edit it, what is the uses of contributing Wikipedia, how to use Wikipedia as a scout in an efficient and effective way, and all the rest. As a scout Wikipedia will be helpful to them in doing researches for specific badges like messengers of peace or environmental badge. Every scout will attempt to edit on their local national scout organizations and related things to scouts.
• Scouts can be able get an exiting experience through a new world like Wikimedia and they can able to develop their knowledge through editing and reading Wikipedia articles, Specially workshops and conferences are aimed at here and mini contests will be conducted. Through these every one not even scout will prefer to edit or contribute Wikipedia. Workshops editathons will make Wikimedia projects to expand and I expect on creating articles with the wikiproject scout on en wiki and translating those in other languages. And WOSM is one of the largest organizations in the world, so when the members of it trying to involve in Wikimedia projects the no.of.persons who involve in and use Wikipedia will increase and it will be a great outreach program all over the world.

Thank you and waiting for your reply--Shriheeran (talk) 01:32, 4 February 2017 (UTC)

Coordination

Hello! I would be happy to help with any grammatical errors. I am a graduate student looking for projects to help "improve" and this one made me smile. I'm sure this other user can help you, but please email me if you need help: rebecca.greer@uah.edu

Interesting idea, consider the digital skills before editing.

Hey @Shriheeran: I think this is a great idea. I was actually a boy scout before joining the Wikimedia Community, and have always felt the dissonance between how scouting is organized (with a lot of empowered individual leaders), and how the Wikimedia community is organized (with leaders emerging only in certain circumstances and situations). Scouting could bring a lot of needed capacity and skills to our communities.

However, I have some concern about the degree of appropriate skills among Scouts for contributing to Wikipedias: in some language communities, the Wikipedia is not very heavily dependent on research skills, so finding a gap to fill in that would be appropriate for a high-school age student to participate in is not a big deal. However, for larger language communities (like English, French, or German), getting a high-school age student with little experience in using a library or understanding the difference between plagiarism and summary, to contribute to Wikipedia, is setting them up to fail. Part of the reason the Wikipedia Education Program in English dominant countries, focuses on outreach to Universities, is because you need a certain level of experience for your content to stick. What skills would you have to introduce to these scouts before they could be successful on Wikipedia? Have you compared the design of what you are thinking to the work done by other communities with younger students in the Education program?

For example, you might find that contributing to Wikipedia is inappropriate for the age group you hope to engage, but contributing to Wiktionary, WikiSource or Wikimedia commons might be better from a teaching perspective. Or you might find, what you are proposing is more of a "21st century research skills" program, designed around teaching the scouts how to contribute to Wikipedia, so that they can gain some of these broader literacies about using the internet. Astinson (WMF) (talk) 15:44, 6 February 2017 (UTC)

@Astinson (WMF): I have replied to you on your email and can you briefly explain your questions? And thank you for your positive comments...--Shriheeran (talk) 16:00, 6 February 2017 (UTC)

Online safety

Several years ago user:Pharos and I visited the Headquarters of the w:Girl Scouts of the USA in New York, to discuss what potential collaborations there could be. They were very interested in the idea of collaboration, volunteerism, learning-through-teaching (i.e. writing an article is a good way to learn about the subject being written) and digital-skills development. The organisation itself also has a fascinating archive of content - photos, magazines, clothing, from the history of the organisation (including the original 'master' blocks for each type of merit-badge produced). There was even the suggestion of creating a 'Wikipedia merit badge'! However there were two practical problems that made collaboration, at the time at least, impossible:

1. The policy of the organisation at the time was that all of their programs had to be independent of, and not involve, members of w:Camp Fire Girls and w:Boy Scouts of America. It seems silly maybe, but they are 'rival' organisations with separate memberships, policies, rules... We could not promise that the Girls wouldn't be working on WP articles that weren't also related to boyscouts or being edited by boyscouts.
2. The general issue of online safety, and safety for children in particular. Editing Wikipedia is done 'at your own risk' in the sense that the user can potentially find content they [or their parents] find uncomfortable/inappropriate or, if they declare themselves to be children on their userpage (which is probable since they would be editing as part of a Scout merit badge project), they might be targeted. The girl scouts organisation couldn't be seen to be promoting an activity where they didn't have control over the environment (they have a w:Duty of Care as w:In loco parentis after all!).

So - any project with Souts would need to find a way to address these specific concerns. Pinging also User:PEarley (WMF) from WMF safety. Sincerely, Wittylama (talk) 17:31, 7 February 2017 (UTC)

Wittylama, In Srilanka 95% of parents don't know about operating conputer. So I think this should not be a problem for sri lankan scouts. According to the law of scout, Scout is believable. Thank you for your great advice and I didn't think about the thing you mentioned here. Thanks again. --Shriheeran (talk) 15:43, 9 February 2017 (UTC)

Project Grant proposal submissions due today!

Thanks for drafting your proposal for a Project Grant. Proposals are due today! In order for this submission to be reviewed, it must be formally proposed. When you have completed filling out the infobox and have fully responded to the questions on your draft, please change status=DRAFT to status=PROPOSED to formally submit your grant proposal. This can be found in the Probox template found on your grant proposal page. If you have already done this, thanks for your submission, and you should be receiving feedback from the Project Grants committee in the coming weeks. Thanks, I JethroBT (WMF) (talk) 18:16, 14 March 2017 (UTC)

September 26 Proposal Deadline: Reminder to change status to 'proposed'

As posted on the Project Grants startpage, the deadline for submissions this round is September 26, 2017. To submit your proposal, you must (1) complete the proposal entirely, filling in all empty fields, and (2) change the status from "draft" to "proposed." As soon as you’re ready, you should begin to invite any communities affected by your project to provide feedback on your proposal talkpage.

Warm regards,
--Marti (WMF) (talk) 04:49, 26 September 2017 (UTC)